The great municipal dilemma of Junts with Aliança Catalana

BarcelonaTen months and a half remain until the municipal elections, and parties are still debating candidacies and programs. At Junts, moreover, they have an important decision to make: what will they have to do with Aliança Catalana (AC). To curb its growth before the elections, but also to know whether they should form alliances afterward, knowing that Sílvia Orriols' party has set its sights on replacing them. What does the leadership say, and what does the local sphere think?

It is true that Aliança shows difficulties in finding candidates with face and eyes, with a partially failed takeover bid on Junts and controversial elections such as people who had been members of fascist parties in Vic or rectifications for the choice of a candidate that intimate with a 16-year-old student of his in Figueres. Be that as it may, it is taken for granted that they will enter into a flurry of town councils, and for the moment, the governing board has not given any instructions to mayors and councilors, as the ARA has learned from consulted party sources. For now, the political strategy is prioritized and the convergent "reagrupament" with various agreements such as with Impulsem and Convergents, while it has been decided not to engage in direct confrontation with Aliança and not to advance scenarios. However, from the territory, there are numerous voices that admit "concern" about the situation, and others have already decided not to close the door to future agreements with the far-right.

Despite municipal autonomy, Junts has highlighted through its leaders that "the red line is human rights." This is what the leader in Barcelona, Jordi Martí, ended up saying, who the day after his primary victory had said he could "talk" with any other "democratic force." He later ended up clarifying his words, and he stressed that speaking to it is one thing and reaching an agreement is another: there can be no agreement "on anything" if AC replicates "what it does and says in Parliament".

If Junts is the leading force in municipalities, the party understands that headaches will decrease. But all scenarios are open. As Junts sources recall, "a party does not say who it will form a coalition with before the elections".

Diversity of criteria

There are Junts leaders with a classic convergent temperament who advocate for "the German way" and excluding the far-right from any pact. "It is worrying, but the key is not to give them prominence," warn local sources, who maintain that Aliança will not form any significant majority beyond what it may obtain in Ripoll. A clear distinction made within the party is between governing jointly with Aliança or reaching investiture pacts and making budgetary or ordinance pacts in small municipalities. In fact, even though in Ripoll Junts has opposed Sílvia Orriols (and voted against the budgets), there have been votes in which they have coincided.

In any case, among mayors and municipal governments, pragmatism prevails: "None of the candidates will be left without the mayoralty for not making a pact with Aliança. We will talk to whoever wants to and if agreements are to be reached, they will be reached for ordinances, budgets, or whatever is necessary," say other municipal sources. "The mayors are pragmatic, it will be seen case by case, Aliança has strange people, but in the villages..." say other Junts sources. In cities, other sources point out, they will be more cautious than in villages.

On the other hand, it is accepted that AC will enter many large cities due to brand inertia, but that it will have less impact than expected; at least less than what is predicted for Catalan elections. That is why there are leaders who are not worried and, for the moment, ignore it.